Simone Biles wrapped up her remarkable Olympic Games with some more history.
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But hours after Biles claimed her fifth Olympic medal, a gold in the floor final, Efron arrived in Rio to congratulate her in person.
United States’ Simone Biles, gold medal victor, and silver medallist and compatriot Aly Raisman, left, wave after final results for floor routine during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2016 Summer Olym.
“The only thing with which I don’t agree with the judges, and it’s a personal opinion and not a criticism – for me the gymnastics of the second American (Raisman) is more artistic than the first (Simone Biles)”.
“I don’t know”, Biles said. “I don’t know. It’s insane …” “It got tiring. But we just wanted to end on a good note”.
Except they’re not just like us, in that after news on Biles’ crush went viral, Efron flew to Rio to meet her, and paid back all the cheek-kissing she’d given his cardboard likeness by kissing her on the cheek.
Teammate Aly Raisman followed with a 15.500 to give her a third medal during Rio and six overall in her Olympic career. The last one draped over her neck following one final show-stopping floor exercise on Tuesday. Britain’s Amy Tinkler (14.933) won bronze. After earning herself three straight gold medals in a row, Simone Biles shocked fans on Monday by slipping on the balance beam and settling for an uncharacteristic bronze medal. On legs she joked felt like rocks, Biles put together 90 seconds of effortless joy. She plans to take a break following the closing ceremonies and try to adjust to a life that will never be the same after nine days that elevated her from gymnastics’ best-kept secret to star. Heady territory considering Leyva only made the Olympic team after John Orozco went down with a knee injury last month.
For the first time in Rio, the US men’s team managed to keep pace with the women thanks to Danell Leyva.
Men’s all-around silver medalist Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine took gold on parallel bars, followed by Leyva and David Belyavskiy of Russian Federation.
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There was high drama on the horizontal bar as defending champion Epke Zonderland took a tumble with Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen adding gold to his silver and bronze from London and Beijing. Nile Wilson of Great Britain earned bronze. The 19-year-old gymnast, who has been dubbed by many the “greatest gymnast ever”, won her fourth and final gold on the floor exercise in today’s event finals.
